The bears prevailed at Nigeria’s Lagos bourse on the first trading day in June, with crucial indicators nose diving and many blue chip stocks closing lower.
Market capitalisation in seven hours of trading shed N467 billion or 3.38 per cent on Friday to close at N13.335 trillion against the N13.802 trillion recorded on Thursday.
Similarly, the All-Share Index dropped 1,288.25 points or 3.38 per cent to close at 36,816.29 against 38,104.54 on Thursday.
A breakdown of the price movement table indicates that Nestle topped the losers’ chart for the day, shedding N42.50 to close at N1,430 per share.
Dangote Cement trailed with a loss of N17 to close at N223, while Total was down by N10.30 to close at N201.70 per share.
Guinness declined by N5 to close at N95, while Nigerian Breweries lost N4.90 to close at N103 per share.
Conversely, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria led the gainers’ table, with N1.30 to close at N27.95 per share.
Access Bank followed with a gain of 55k to close at N10.95, while Eterna Oil appreciated by 30k to close at N6.33 per share.
United Bank for Africa increased by 20k to close at N11, while Fidelity Bank gained 9k to close at N1.99 per share.
However, the volume of shares traded closed lower with 516.83 million shares valued at N7.19 billion transacted in 5,031 deals.
This was against a total of 1.62 billion shares worth N71.19 billion achieved in 5,166 deals on Thursday.
Access Bank was the investors’ delight in volume terms, accounting for 144.57 million shares worth N1.58 billion.
Sovereign Insurance followed with an account of 73.04 million shares valued at N19.69 million, while UBA traded 59.98 million shares worth N658.96 million.
Zenith International Bank traded 55.52 million shares valued at N1.422billion, while Guaranty Trust Bank sold 24.01 million shares worth N971.47 million.
